Competition in Business Aviation
Credit picture: Gollum – Lord of Rings
You probably know already how hard is to get into the Business Aviation and find a valuable opportunity to work on a Private Jet.
Are you also wondering how hard is to maintain your position once you found it?
Legitimate question.
Competition between flight attendants:
Well, let me tell you the good news: if you are employed by an operator, it’s kinda easier.
You just have to deal with one group of people, which is your fellow colleagues.
The bigger the organisation, the bigger the group is.
It’s just a matter of career evolution, like in any other institution.
A different story is if you are a freelancer.
You are your own employer, and the private jet operators (hopefully many of them) are your clients.
But you are not the only freelancer they call, and here’s when the clash starts.
It’s not what you think.
The competition is not entirely about how do you work, how did you leave the jet, how deeply did you clean it or if you forgot to do something.
Well, obviously, you do you job in a professional way and you are always polite and nice to everyone!
What I am trying to say is that the competition is not about how you style the jet, administer it or conduct the flight.
Everyone has his own style and this is not under discussion.
The competition rises when we start talking about contacts.
By contacts I mean email addresses, names, phone numbers.
Flight attendant managers, lead pilots or people involved into the operations who manages also the freelancers.
This is the most precious thing for a freelance and usually we do not share them with anyone.
Do you remember the colossal “Lord of Rings”, that little grey monster named Gollum? Something like that!
My suggestion is: if you don’t want to ruin a potential collaboration or friendly relationship with another fight attendant, never ask him/her to pass their contacts.
This is very impolite, and the reaction might be a rough one.
Competition between pilots
There is also competition between pilots, but it works the other way round.
Freelance pilots have a limited number of competitors.
This number is equivalent to the number of pilots who owns the same type rating (flight attendants can fly on almost all jets).
Obviously, they can’t fly a Private Jet without having the related Type Rating (training).
So, if 50 pilots have the same type rating, you have 49 competitors.
The popular is the Type Rating, the successful will be the freelance pilot.
I’s say that the competition in this case is not a direct one and it is more… underhand.
But when you are employed by an organisation, the level of the competition rises.
They all race to get a promotion and the first step is the commander upgrade.
Then, Line Trainer, Lead Captain, Instructor, Type Rating Instructor, Type Rating Examiner…
These are just a few of the many roles available for pilots in the Business Aviation and often they compete between each other for that, within the same organisation.
In conclusion: remember to always be nice to your fellow colleagues. You never know what struggles they are facing at this time!